Family Comes First
by KBlye
Summary: Set after selfless brave true- Emma hears Snow telling James about her encounter with Regina. Emma sees this as Snow trying to leave her again. Mostly Emma and Snow/Charming – family stuff.


**Set after selfless brave true- Emma hears Snow telling James about her encounter with Regina. Emma sees this as Snow trying to leave her again. Mostly Emma and Snow/Charming – family stuff. I hope you enjoy my first fanfic and please take the time to leave a review good or bad. Thanks again and just to let everyone know I don't own anything!**

After heading up the stairs with Henry and into their shared bedroom, Emma grabs her pajamas and turns to leave Henry to dress for bed.

"Be right back kid, just going to have a quick shower."

"Okay" the boy replies.

As Emma closes her bedroom door behind her giving Henry the privacy he needs she is stopped at the top of the stairs by her mothers voice. Usually she would just slip passed and go straight to the bathroom but it's what her mother said next that's what stops Emma's breathing.

"I went to Regina's house and confronted her."

"Are you out of your mind!" Comes Davids worried voice. "She could have killed you!"

Emma had to remember to breath. She quietly slid down to the floor and moved closer to the edge of the stairs to hear for Snow's response.

"I know. That's why I went, so she would kill me."

Tears started to form in Emma's eyes as the words hit her. She went to Regina so she would kill her. As the conversation between Snow and James continued Emma forced to compose herself. She wiped away the tears and shrugged of any emotions she was feeling. Why should it matter what Snow tried to do its not like Emma knew something like this wouldn't happen. Everyone Emma knew all her life broke all their promises and walked away from her, it was only a matter of time before the next promise was broken.

Emma stood up and headed back to her room, making sure not to make a sound and found Henry already in bed asleep so she pulled off her boots and went straight to bed in her clothes. She tried hard to sleep but after August turning back into a boy today and the conversation she just over heard, Emma was up most of the night before finally her eyelids were forced to close.

The next morning Emma woke to the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen. Slowly she rolled over and opened her eyes to find that Henry was already up. Thankful for the amount of paper work waiting at work Emma got up and changed into fresh clothes, she really didn't want to hang around Snow or James today.

Henry was dressed for the day and digging into a plate full of pancakes when Emma appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey kid you just about ready to go?" Emma asked as she went to the front door and pulled her blue jacket off the hanger and slid it on.

"Yer I'm ready. Just let me grab my bag from upstairs." Henry was out of his seat and racing up the stairs in a second. Emma was glad the kid had so much energy at this time of the morning, it ment she could get out of the house quicker and away from the curious look Snow was giving her.

Emma was pulled from thought when she heard Snow speak.

"Where are you's going? Do you want some breakfast before you head out?"

Emma refused to meet Snow's eyes she didn't know what she felt towards Snow at this point but anger was defiantly in there. "I'm taking Henry to spend the day with Neal then I have heaps of work to do at the station."

Snow was about to speak again but Henry came running down the stairs and cut her off. "I'm ready now, lets go."

Snow could see something was off with her daughter and knew she was acting strange for some reason. With one hand already on the front door, Emma turned and opened it. "Emma is everything alright?" Snow quickly asked before she left the room. James looked up from the dishes he was drying to study why Snow had asked that question when he hadn't noticed.

"I'm fine, I just have a lot of paper work to look forward to." Emma flashed Snow and James a quick forced smile before quickly turning to leave and closing the door behind her.

"Snow what's wrong?" James asked as he took in his wife's completely worried face.

"Emma. She seemed different, like she was being distant or something."

James sighed as he heard Snow's broken voice. "I'm sure she is fine, the last few weeks have been a lot for her maybe its just catching up on her."

"I know her Charming, I have been living with her for over a year now and I know when something is bothering her. It was like she was trying hard to get out of here, like her walls were completely up again. When I asked her if something was wrong she didn't even look at me. I'm scared that if her walls are up then she might be trying to push us away again and it's probably all my fault after how I have been acting these last few days."

Snow buried her face in her hands and sobbed. James moved to comfort Snow and took her in his arms wrapping her in a tight embrace.

"Snow listen to me" James started, wiping away stray tears that continued to fall with his thump. "I'm not going to let Emma push us away, not ever. If she has her walls up then we will get through to her again. Don't go blaming yourself until we find out what is upsetting her okay."

Snow nodded against James' chest taking in his words. He was right, she would never let Emma push her away no matter what. After a few silent minutes of comfort James broke away from his wife. "I'll head to the station and try to talk to Emma she might just be tired and need some help with all the paper work." James grabbed his coat and kissed Snow. "I will only be an hour or so."

Snow went back to cleaning up the breakfast dishes and called out to James before he closed the door behind him. "I love you."

James spun around on his heals and smiled at his wife standing there in the kitchen. "Love you too. I'll be back soon" and with that James closed the door and headed off to find his daughter.

Emma sat at her desk shuffling through the large pile of paperwork that needed to be sorted and filed. With a loud sigh she dropped her head onto the desk and closed her eyes. Why was she so bothered by what Snow had done, its not like Emma didn't expect something like this to happen. For a moment Emma debated whether to just fall asleep here on her desk, she felt so tired after the little amount of sleep she got last night.

She was just about to give into the darkness when a loud voice came up from behind her.

"So much for paper work."

Emma threw her head up almost jumping out of her chair, as the voice startled her but she instantly relaxed when she saw it was James. James smiled at her and handed her a hot chocolate from Granny's getting a smile in return from Emma.

"Thanks" Emma mumbled. She was thankful it wasn't Snow who had come or she would have had to look for another excuse to exit. "What are you doing here? Doesn't Snow need you?" It came out a bit more bitter than Emma had planed but at the moment she didn't care.

"I am here because I can see that there is something terribly bugging my daughter and I want to know what that is so I can help." James said as he walked around to lean on the side of Emma's desk he knew Snow was right, something was wrong with Emma.

Emma rolled her eyes "I'm fine."

And that's all James needed to confirm that he was spot on. "Emma I care about you and Snow cares about you.."

"That's just it!" She suddenly yells, getting angry. "Snow doesn't care!" Emma stood up and started pacing the room, she didn't want to lose her temper and fight with James he hadn't done anything wrong. "Sorry I didn't mean to yell."

James stood in shock watching as his daughter trying to compose herself.

"Look don't worry about me I'm fine okay" Emma says.

"Emma how could you think Snow doesn't care about you. Everything she does, she does for you." James was still getting over the shock on finally hearing why his daughter was so upset. Because of his wife. Because of her mother. And because she thinks she doesn't care about her anymore.

"Obviously not _everything_" Emma mutters but before James can correct her Emma grabs her keys of the table and rushes for the door. "Can you pick Henry up from Neal's later this afternoon I wont be home until late, I got heaps of work to do" and without another word Emma raced out of the stations door, she could hear her father calling out her name but she didn't dare stop.

It was well pass midnight when Emma ultimately decided to head home. If she was lucky enough her parents would be asleep already and she could just sneak straight upstairs to be bed. When Emma was inside the apartment she noticed there were no lights on which ment no one was awake and so she headed for the stairs and straight to bed as quietly as she could.

Emma planed on getting up early and slip out to the station before anyone woke up in the morning but she was so exhausted that she ended up sleeping in instead. Emma wondered if she could get away with staying in bed all day and just hid but knew right away is Snow found her in bed any longer she was sure to come up and check on her.

As Emma descended down the stairs she was surprised when she couldn't see Henry in the kitchen or sitting room. He usually was digging into Snow's breakfast she made for him or watching one of his favorite shows on T.V.

"Morning" Snow greeted as she saw Emma come into the room.

"Where's Henry?"

"James took him to the stables for a few hours" Emma could see Snow was trying to read her and just as she turned to leave for the front door Snow spoke again. "Emma can we talk for a second?"

Straight away Emma cursed herself for not getting out the door quick enough. "Um yer sure. What's up?" She asked only turning to face Snow and not moving from the spot where she was standing by the door.

Snow's heart broke seeing that her daughter was keeping her distance. "Emma I want to know what's bothering you. Please just talk to me." Snow could see Emma fidgeting from foot to foot.

"Look I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me."

"Emma please" Snow begged. "Tell me what's bothering you."

"Nothing!" Emma raised her voice. "I'm fine, I always have been and always will be. I didn't need you when I was growing up and I sure don't need you now so if you want to run off and get your self killed don't let me stand in your way." Emma paused and held back her tears. "Not that I did stand in your way last time."

"Emma what are you talking about?"

"When you went to Regina's so she could rip your heart out!" Emma yelled. "Did you even care about _anyone_ when you decided to run off?"

Snow wasn't shocked at Emma's yelling. She knew it was only a matter of time before Emma started to lash out but what did surprise her was why Emma lashed out. It was because she heard her tell James about her encounter with Regina the other night.

Tears started to fall from Snow's eyes. How could she have let this happen. "Emma no." Snow needed Emma to understand her but as soon as she locked eyes with her daughter, Snow knew her walls were up and stronger than ever this time. Before Snow found her voice again Emma ran out the door not even bothering to close it behind her. Snow was left staring into the space her daughter stood only seconds ago, she let out a sob and fell to the floor.

James took Henry to Granny's for hot chocolate after spending the last few hours at the stables. When they entered they saw Neal sitting at one of the booths reading the paper and decided to join him. After taking a sip of his hot drink James looked up out the window and noticed Emma walking pass outside. Straight away James could tell she was very upset, she had the same look on her face that Snow had when she was upset. James left this morning with Henry hoping to give Snow and Emma the chance to talk but by the looks of his daughter it didn't go well at all.

"Neal do you mind watching Henry for a few hours I just remembered I had something I need to do?" James asked Neal.

"Yer no problem take your time." Smiled Neal

"Henry do you mind?" James asked making sure Henry didn't mind either.

Henry gave James a big toothy grin. "Nope. I'll see ya later Gramps."

"Thanks" James said to both of them and quickly got up and left the diner to catch up with his daughter.

Emma didn't know how long she had been wondering around the streets of town before she heard her name being called. She debated with herself whether or not she should turn around or just keep walking. She decided to keep her head down and keep walking who ever they were would soon leave her alone. It wasn't until she felt two arms grab her shoulders and stop her.

James held Emma's shoulders firmly and spun her around to face him. She didn't registered it was him until he lifted her face to meet his gaze. James took in his daughters tear stained cheeks and red puffy eyes. "Emma what happened?"

Emma dropped her head and looked back down at the ground. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"What doesn't matter anymore? Emma what happened with Snow?" Emma pulled away from James and continued walking down the road. James feared Emma was shutting down completely so he knew had to get through to her soon and sort this out. He wrapped one arm around Emma and started to lead her back towards the apartment. Emma didn't notice James' arm around her leading her home until the building came into view and Emma looked up.

"No, no I'm not going back in there" Emma shrugged out of James' embrace and started backing away from the building.

James instantly turned to Emma, "Emma it's okay we are just going to go back and talk with Snow."

"No, no" Emma repeated "I can't.. I just can't please."

James watched as Emma begged him as tears flowed from her eyes. "Okay." James said softly. "Okay we wont go back in there."

James took Emma in his arms as she cried onto his shoulder and he led her away from the apartment building. Emma relaxed as they walked closer and closer towards the forest, she didn't seem to care where James was taking her.

Emma was lost in her own world when James and her stopped at the Toll Bridge, Emma took a moment to look around her and realise where she was.

"Why are we here?"

James lent over the edge to look at the water running below. "You tell me."

"I can't face her" Emma said mimicking her fathers posture. "I heard you two talking the other night about how she went and saw Regina."

"Emma you shouldn't have had to hear that" James sighed.

"But you shouldn't have thought to keep it from me. _She_ should have told me as well as you. I'm not the little baby you need to protect anymore, I'm know how to look after myself."

"Let me get one thing straight Emma," James told her in a firm voice so it would sink into her. "You might be all grown up but no matter how old you are your mother and I will always want to protect you no matter what. We know how strong you are and know that without a doubt you can look after yourself but we love you too much and don't ever want to see you hurting."

Emma let out a sob "The worst part is that I thought this time was different. I let her promise me that she wasn't going to leave me. I don't know why I thought this time was different, no matter who the promise comes from they always leave in the end."

"Your mother cares a great deal about you and don't think for one minute that she doesn't. We both love you so much that we would do anything for you."

"Then why was she going to leave me again?" Emma continued to sob.

Listening to his daughter cry felt like someone was crushing his heart. James didn't have an answer for her and it pained him to know that every promise made to his daughter was somehow broken and so he swore to himself that he would make sure Snow keep hers.

He pulled Emma down to the ground and held her tightly, Emma never hesitated once she was too caught up in all her emotions to realise his tight hold on her. James pulled out his phone discretely and sent a message to Snow telling her to meet him at the Toll Bridge and that Emma needed her right away.

It took Snow less than ten minutes to arrive at the trail that led to the Toll Bridge and as quickly as her legs could take her, she traveled down the pathway. When the bridge came into view Snow saw the two figures sitting huddled together, as she got closer she saw James with his arm around Emma who had her eyes closed as if she had fallen asleep. Tears formed in Snow's eyes as she saw how utterly exhausted her daughter really was and above all Emma looked defeated.

James saw his wife approaching them and smiled at her but quickly his smile faded when he knew what was about to happen so James motioned for Snow to sit on the other side of Emma. Emma hadn't noticed Snow's presents so Snow thought she must have been asleep. Slowly James shifted his weight so Emma rolled and was now leaning on Snow instead, at the same time Snow put the arm around Emma and shuffled closer.

Emma felt the shifting of James' weight only to be held by someone else sitting on the other side of her. She decided to keep her eyes closed, she didn't want to open them and find it being anyone else but the one person she really needed. First Emma felt the heavy rhythm of the persons heart beating then smelt the sweet perfume that hung of their clothing. Surely her mind was playing tricks on her because she would know that perfume anywhere and more importantly the woman who always wore it. It was her mother. Emma squeezed her eyes shut tighter, she thought she might be losing it but when she heard her mothers soft angelic voice whisper her name in her ear Emma almost couldn't believe herself it really was her.

Emma couldn't hold back the tears so she let them fall freely down the side of her face. Still not truly believing she was being held by her mother who she just yelled at moments ago, Emma moved her hand from around her waist and reached out to grab hold of the side of Snow's jacket just to tell herself she was really here.

Snow sat their and watched as tears fell from Emma's closed eyes and onto her pale cheeks and right away Snow used her thumb to brush them away but stopped when she noticed Emma grab hold of her jacket. She noticed Emma's knuckles start to turn white from the sealed hold she had on the jacket so Snow placed her had over her daughters and gave it a slight squeeze.

"You were going to leave me again" came Emma's broken child like voice. "And you promised me you wouldn't."

"Oh Emma sweetie, I wasn't thinking straight. I'm so sorry." Snow said through tears of her own.

Snow saw as Emma slowly opened her eyes. "Why? Why did you do it?"

Snow took a moment to look over at James who also looked as if he was about to cry. "I couldn't handle the pain I had caused and I didn't know how to deal with it. I know I should have told you about it sooner I was afraid of what you would think when you found out about my blacken heart."

"I don't care about that. I just... I just couldn't lose you. Not again."

Snow placed her hand on Emma's face. At some point it had started to rain while they were sitting there and Emma''s body let out a shiver. "Emma honey you will never lose me ever again and I will prove it to you every day for the rest of my life. There is nothing more important in the world to me than you. I love you Emma with all my heart." Snow whispered in Emma's ear while she brushed her daughters now wet hair out of her face.

"I'm so sorry" Emma finally moved her head to look up at Snow.

"Oh honey what are you sorry for?" Snow wondered.

Emma bowed her head in shame. "For all that horrible stuff I said to you. I'm so sorry I didn't mean any of it. All my life I have wished for my parents to come and find me and take me away somewhere, now that I found you I don't ever want to lose you ever again. Both of you."

Snow placed her hand on Emma's chin and lifted her head to look back into her eyes. "Baby girl we are right here and we are never ever leaving you ever again. You have nothing to be sorry for okay?" Emma nodded and sunk back into her mothers arms. "Come on lets get you home and out of this rain."

Emma made no attempt to move so James took her in his arms and started to carry her home. Snow followed closely beside her husband with a smile planted on her face as she watched him carry their daughter through the forest. Their perfect, precious baby girl.

James placed Emma in her bed and pulled the blankets tightly around her tucking her safely in then kissing her on the head. He walked over to Snow who was standing at the foot of the bed watching him. "Didn't I tell you everything would work out." He told her as he took her in his arms.

"Yes Charming I guess you did" she smiled up at him then gave him a passionate kiss. "Our baby is home safe with us."

The two of them turned to leave their daughter to rest and sleep but heard her voice before they got to the door.

"Where are you going?" Came Emma's scared worried voice.

Snow and James spun back around to see that Emma was now sitting up in bed with a frightened look on her face. "I'm not going anywhere" Snow confirmed as she saw that Emma was afraid to fall asleep.

Snow went over to lay on the other side of the bed with Emma as James went to leave the room. "Dad wait!" Emma yelled.

James felt as if he was glued to the floor as he heard the words leave his daughters mouth. He watched as Emma jumped out of bed and ran over to him across the room. James caught Emma as she threw her arms around him, almost knocking the wind completely out of him.

"Thank you so much for finding me" she whispered in his ear.

"Always" James replied with a kiss to the top of her head. James then walked Emma back over to her bed and tucked her tightly back in. With the biggest smile towards his wife James got up and left his girls to rest. As he closed the door behind him, he paused to listen to the two most important women in his life talking to one another.

"Tell me a story." He heard Emma plea.

"Okay" Snow chuckled. "Once upon a time there was an Enchanted Forest filled with all the classic fairy tale character that you know, or you think you know. Until one day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen. This World. This is how it happened..."


End file.
